UNIVersal Automatic Computer

USA 1951

The first UNIVAC I was delivered on June 14, 1951. From 1951 to
1958 a total of 46 UNIVAC I computers were delivered, all of which
have since been phased out.

In 1947, John Mauchly chose the name "UNIVAC"
(Universal Automatic Computer) for his company's product.

Scanned from the Annuals of the History of Computing, Vol.
3 #4 October 1981

UNIVAC was designed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly (designers
of the ENIAC). Their company, the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company,
was purchased by Sperry-Rand.

The UNIVAC handled both numbers and alphabetic characters equally
well. The UNIVAC I was unique in that it separated the complex problems
of input and output from the actual computation facility. Mercury
delay lines were used to store the computer's program. The program
circulated within the lines in the form of acoustical pulses that
could be read from the line and written into it.

The first UNIVAC came on line for the U.S. Government's Census Bureau.
The first commercial customer to purchase a UNIVAC was the Prudential
Insurance Company.

In 1952, the UNIVAC I successfully predicted the outcome of the 1952
presidential election, during a televised news broadcast.

General Electric's Appliance Division created the first successful
industrial payroll application for the UNIVAC I in 1954.

In 1956, Westinghouse Electric Company installed a UNIVAC computer
in its East Pittsburgh plant. The UNIVAC was used to calculate company
payrolls, sales records, analysis of sales performance and other
company business. The UNIVAC could perform 90,000 transactions per
month.

With Walter Cronkite anchoring
the CBS 1952 Presidential Election Returns, on nationwide broadcast
television, UNIVAC was used to predict who would win the election
and become the next President of the United States.

The Computer Debuts on Television

CBS fed the incoming Presidential
election results into the UNIVAC which was using one of the first
computer databases. Early in the evening, UNIVAC issused its
computational prediction that Eisenhower would win. Conventional
pundits overwhelmingly thought Adlai E. Stevenson would win and that
the "computer made an error." So, CBS withheld its predictions
from the air, but as the night went on, Walter Cronkite announced
UNIVAC was right and Eisenhower had won. (1)

At the time of General Eisenhower's election in
November 1952, the first UNIVAC I was still operating at the Eckert-Mauchly
facility in Philadelphia. Shortly thereafter, it was removed to
the Census Bureau in Suitland, Maryland USA.(2)

The UNIVAC was used for general purpose computing with large amounts
of input and output.

UNIVAC Mercury Delay Line from Univac brochure

Power consumption was about 120 kva. Its reported processing speed
was 0.525 milliseconds for arithmetic functions, 2.15 milliseconds
for multiplication and 3.9 Milliseconds for division.

The UNIVAC I was also the first computer to come equipped with a
magnetic tape unit and was the first computer to use buffer memory.

univac at the census bureau

Each Univac I was equipped with ten magnetic tape drives each
and all were compatible, that is, tapes generated on one drive
could be used on any drive. In addition, since input and output
operations on magnetic tapes were buffered, they could proceed
independent of other central
processing tasks which greatly increased throughput. These two
characteristics made Univac I uniquely suited for large data-processing
tasks. This second computer (installed in 1954) was operated jointly
with the Internal Revenue Service, UNIVAC had duplicate arithmetic
units, so all errors were immediately detected. Many pioneering
software programs for sorting and processing large data files were
created on these computers by the Census bureau staff. (2)

Chronology

1951

The first UNIVAC I was delivered
on June 14, 1951 to the census bureau.

1952

It made its star-studded public
debut in November 1952 on the CBS television network.
1953

3 UNIVACs were installed and in operation

1954

The first successful industrial payroll application by General Electric.

A
second UNIVAC 1, installed literally alongside serial #1, at
the Census Bureau. The second computer was identical except that
instead of being cooled by recirculating air, it was water-cooled
by two 52 ton air-conditioners located in the basement of the building.
Since all computer memory was volaitie, programs as well as files
were loaded before each run, so the computers were essentially interchangeable.
(2)

8 UNIVACs were installed and in operation:

Bureau of the Census, Commerce Dept., Suitland, Maryland

Office of the Air Comptroller, USAF, Washington, D.C.

Army Map Service, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C.

New York University (for Atomic Energy Commission), NY, NY

University of Cal., Radiation Laboratory, Livermore, California

David Taylor Model Basin, U.S.N. Bureau of Ships, Maryland

Prudential Insurance Company

General Electric Company

1956

Westinghouse Electric Company installed a UNIVAC
to calculate company payrolls, sales records, analysis of sales performance
and other company business.